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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28888233">Visited by Joy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosepetalfall/pseuds/rosepetalfall'>rosepetalfall</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(almost anyway!), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Courting Rituals, Friends to Lovers, Jedha, Learning About Each Other's Cultures, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Marriage of Convenience Adjacent, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Prince Luke AU, Remix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:46:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,155</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28888233</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosepetalfall/pseuds/rosepetalfall</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke's lips twist. “Mamá’s decided it’s time for me to get married, and if I go back to Aldera now, she’ll talk me into it.”</p><p>“Come back with me to Jedha when I go next week,” Bodhi proposes, speaking before his mind is consciously aware he meant to make the invitation. “It helped you before, right?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bodhi Rook/Luke Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bulletproof 20/21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Visited by Joy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassySnowperson/gifts">SassySnowperson</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/13292661">Stone and Sand</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassySnowperson/pseuds/SassySnowperson">SassySnowperson</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If you haven't read Stone and Sand, do that!! It's beautiful and very much the inspiration for this story, though you don't need to be familiar with it to read this. </p><p>Sassy, I hope you enjoy this! Stone and Sand has brought me so much joy and I like to think that this is both a twist on the same concept and a tribute to it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bodhi closes his eyes and the firefight around them fades away. Jyn will get the plans off Scarif. Somehow he feels it in his blood. The Force is with them.</p><p>Bodhi has saved Jedha and now Galen’s daughter will save the galaxy. It feels right.</p><p>"This is for you, Galen," Bodhi whispers, completing his task.</p><p>Then, there is a split-second awareness — that's a grenade rolling in. And —</p><p>Pain. Darkness.</p>
<hr/><p>When Bodhi opens his eyes again, there is a prince sitting beside him. Bodhi notices slowly, sluggishly, that he’s lying down in a bed and there are wide windows to one side. There is a vase of starflowers nearby, tiny floral bursts the color of sky. Bodhi turns his gaze to the prince and blinks.</p><p>"Oh!" the boy says, sitting up abruptly, nearly upsetting the datapad resting in his lap. "You're awake! That's fantastic!"</p><p>He's wearing all white, back-lit so the sunshine makes his golden hair, half done up in some ornate bun, glow like a halo. Bodhi has seen this painting somewhere before, but he can’t think. His mind is so heavy. He stops trying to remember.</p><p>“It’s okay,” the boy says. “Just sit back. I’ll get Two-One Bee for you.”</p><p>What a very strange dream, Bodhi thinks instead, drifting hazily, the click-hiss of medical droids and the sensation of the blankets over his limbs making only the softest dent of an impression on his consciousness.</p><p>"I'm Luke Organa, by the way," is the last thing Bodhi hears before he slips back under. "I'm here to thank you. But that can wait."</p>
<hr/><p>Nine years later, after the war and so much else, Bodhi lets himself into the low-lit library of the Alderaanian embassy and takes what felt like his first clear breath of the evening. Someone has opened a window so the cool evening air filters through, carrying with it a faint smell of flowers. Chandrila is undeniably beautiful in the full bloom of its spring.</p><p>It is, Bodhi thinks, too lovely a season to be squandered on as silly an activity as a ball. But after all the long, hard years, Bodhi is hardly going to go around rolling his eyes at people wanting something beautiful, a little thoughtless. No matter how much he wants to.</p><p>So long as Jedha's place in this experiment of a New Republic remains solid and respected, Bodhi will bite his tongue.</p><p>Plus Bodhi cares too much about his own life and safety to ever insinuate a party hosted by Leia Organa, the Crown Princess of Alderaan herself, a key vote in the Concord of Systems and a good friend besides, is anything else than in impeccable taste.</p><p>But even so, Bodhi had found himself wanting clear air and clear conversation, both of which were in short supply in the embassy ballroom. The diplomats were as circuitous as the dancers. Bodhi doesn’t have the arsenal of blandly pleasant smiles and patience that Winter Retrac does or the blinding bright conviction of Princess Leia, so neither forbearance nor directness seemed to get him very far.</p><p>Bodhi isn’t a politician by nature, for all that he’s fallen into government somehow, since coming home to Jedha on the winds of peace. He’s good at his job, keeping the space shipping lanes flowing smoothly, the spaceports from breaking down, the droid cargo hauler’s union satisfied. What he isn’t good at is parties like this. It takes effort, to act genial and calm, when beneath he’s just waiting for a chance to get out of his formal clothes and curl up in bed with a cup of chai. Away from the noise and the expectations and the press of the crowd.</p><p>Bodhi had only joined Jedha’s delegation to the Concord’s opening sessions this year because Mayor Prameen and Baze had just short of ordered him to go. More voices from the Holy City were needed, and Baze had insisted that the man now in charge of the NiJedha’s spaceports and extra-planetary shipping channels had to be on hand to shoot down the flights of fancy that Jedha’s Representatives tended towards.</p><p>"And who knows?" Chirrut had added with an entirely too pleased grin. "Perhaps you will find some nice young person to bring home to your mother! She worries!"</p><p>Bodhi would have liked to retort that his mother's worries for him revolved more around when the representative of the Delikita Trader's Collective would stop showing up at the house at the crack of dawn, bristling with wild-eyed demands before they'd even finished morning prayers. But it was impolite to lie to a Guardian (no matter how cheerfully he himself might lie on any given day) and Bodhi's mother <em>was</em> increasingly direct about wanting him to find a spouse.</p><p>"I see you had the same thought about hiding," an amused sounding voice says, suddenly cutting through Bodhi's musings.</p><p>Bodhi claps a hand to his chest, startled.</p><p>Even though he’s backlit, and dressed in a shade of blue so dark that he could almost blend into the shadows, Bodhi's heart recognizes him even before his eyes. Bodhi’s heartbeat slows to comfort. <em>Luke</em>.</p><p>Though, of course, tonight, dressed impeccably, hair threaded through with tiny, metallic decorations that sparkle like mica, he looks far more like Luke Organa, Alderaan's reluctant but beloved prince, than Bodhi’s old friend — the daredevil starfighter pilot, the half-trained engineer waiting for peace to take back up his tools, the curious Jedi student sitting at Chirrut’s feet, thirsty for knowledge.</p><p>"Luke!" Bodhi says, finding himself grinning. However unfamiliar Luke might look right now, it’s only presentation. "I heard a rumor you were in town.”</p><p>Luke smiles back, with a genuine brightness that reminded Bodhi of a younger, more carefree version of his friend.</p><p>“You heard correctly,” Luke agrees, striding over, arms open for a hug that Bodhi is all too glad to give him.</p><p>“It’s been too long,” Luke says, when they drew away from one another. Luke’s hands squeeze Bodhi’s upper arms before letting go.</p><p>“It has,” Bodhi agrees, because it’s undeniably true. “You've really been off traveling a lot. Or that’s what I hear. Where were you last?” he asks, as they settled into a window seat.</p><p>“Mirial, with the Alderaani Engineering Corps,” Luke says, resting one bent leg up on the cushion. “We were doing transport infrastructure projects, mostly. Which,” he adds, playfully tapping on Bodhi’s knee, “you would know if you wrote or commed more."</p><p>"I could say the same about you," Bodhi counters lightly. It used to surprise him, how Luke could pull out court manners at the drop of a hat but then forget basic communication, like telling his friends he hadn’t actually died or been found by the Empire, just gotten a little stranded and in need of a pick-up. But by now it’s simply another thing Bodhi knows. “Maybe I’d write more if I knew I’d hear back more often.”</p><p>“Papá does always say I’m terrible at keeping up with my correspondence,” Luke says, his lips thinning into a line.</p><p>“You have other good qualities to make up for it,” Bodhi says, nudging at Luke’s ankle with his foot. He doesn’t really want to needle Luke tonight, because it honestly is an unexpected treat to see him after so long. “Anyway, what are you doing on Chandrila right now? You definitely didn't come because you wanted to be here for the Concord sessions.”</p><p>Luke physically recoils, shoulders hunching at the thought. “Definitely not,” he says. Then he bites his lip.</p><p>Bodhi feels an instinctive curl of nerves beginning in his stomach. That face has been the launching point of a few too many harrowing adventures for him not to be wary.</p><p>“I may,” Luke says, dragging out his words, “possibly be avoiding going home to see my mother?”</p><p>Bodhi huffs a sigh. Somehow better and worse than he’d expected at the same time. “Luke,” he says reprovingly.</p><p>“Don’t look at me like that, it’s not like we’re fighting,” Luke protests. “It’s just that,” his lips twist. “Mamá’s decided it’s time for me to get married, and if I go back to Aldera now, she’ll talk me into it.”</p><p>Bodhi sits back so fast, the wood of the window frame bites at his back. He doesn’t know why the news feels so like a reverberating blaster shot to the chest.</p><p>Luke is a prince. Bodhi never forgot that, during the war.</p><p>The title and the bows and the way the Alderaani rebels always straightened their shoulders back and stood taller in Luke’s presence: all of it had kept Bodhi from ever really knowing what to do with Luke’s earnest, youthful admiration. How he’d lean in towards Bodhi with eager eyes and brush his shoulders against Bodhi’s while they fixed the wiring on Bodhi’s shuttle. Back then, when Bodhi was first getting back on his feet — only one of them flesh anymore — he had barely known what to do with the fact that he'd survived. A prince maybe wanting to kiss him had been several steps too far.</p><p>Luke, for all that people accused him of being oblivious, handled himself with incredible delicacy when he was paying attention. He’d stopped standing so close and switched instead to offhandedly asking Jyn and Bodhi and even Cassian, who regarded Luke with a certain wariness, to join Rogue Squadron in the dining hall, or tagging Bodhi in as a second opinion on engine repairs. They’d never talked about it. At the time, it was simply a relief. Somehow, though, Bodhi realizes, he’d always thought of it being a postponement, rather than a closed door between them. As if their could-have-been love was only waiting (for Bodhi to heal, for Luke to settle into himself) to finally set down roots.</p><p>"Married," Bodhi finally echoes. He bites his lip, trying to figure out which of the clawing questions he wants to ask first. He settles on, "Why now?"</p><p>Luke exhales. "Well, she's given up on convincing Leia. And she thinks me marrying someone suitable from offplanet would get the Great Houses off our backs. She's been talking about it like holochess," he says. "Shows them we still care about tradition, burnishes an alliance, and practically speaking, takes me out of the line of succession. No one wants a king who’s spent most of his adult life offplanet."</p><p>"And then you’d be free to look for Jedi artifacts," Bodhi says, slowly, the possibilities unspooling. He's always admired Breha Organa but the last few years have taught him enough to see the true craftsmanship of her reign. "But that's exactly what you want, isn't it?" Difficult as it is to say, Luke's mother may have designed him the best escape route he'll find.</p><p>"Yes," Luke agrees, but he's staring out the window, the furrow between his eyebrows dug in.</p><p>“She wouldn’t pick anyone you didn’t like,” Bodhi says, talking himself towards a future that makes his stomach roil.</p><p>Luke gives a brief attempt at a smile. “No. And I think she’s having Owen and Beru vet the possible candidates.”</p><p>“They’ll all know how to shoot, at least,” Bodhi offers back. Luke’s aunt and uncle are nothing if not sensible and Force knows they would probably resort to murder before letting anyone hurt Luke, for whom they twice gave up everything they’d known without so much as a backward glance.</p><p>“And they’ll be able to manage complex finances and have considered opinions about proper water management procedures, probably,” Luke adds, a hint of real amusement flickering in his eyes before fading again. “I think if it were just about <em>liking </em>them, I wouldn’t care so much,” Luke says, drawing one leg up to his chest, hugging his arms around his shin. “But there’s . . . I’d have to tell them the truth, for any of it to even have a chance of being . . .”</p><p>Bodhi waits, twisting his fingers together, but Luke doesn't seem inclined to finish. He's just staring out the window into the gardens, deep lines etched between his eyebrows. "Real?" Bodhi finally finishes for him, when the silence becomes too constraining.</p><p>“I don’t need it to be real,” Luke says, looking back at Bodhi, a terrible soberness falling over his face. “But I can’t be a stranger in my own marriage my whole life. If I tell the truth about my father, though — my entire family's reputation is at stake. Finding someone the Great Houses would approve of and that I'd get along with wouldn't be so hard. But finding someone I can trust, too? I don't know that even Owen and Beru can do that."</p><p>Bodhi takes a deep breath in. Luke's life is too intertwined with the great shifts of galactic history for any advice to be adequate.</p><p>“Come back with me to Jedha when I go next week,” Bodhi proposes, speaking before his mind is consciously aware he meant to make the invitation. “It helped you before, right?”</p><p>Luke had stayed for nearly three months when he’d come, after finally finishing his long-delayed engineering degree. He’d shown up out of the blue, seemingly at a loss now that he’d accomplished the first line of his ‘after-the-war’ list. Bodhi had shown him the best sweet shops and how to fly a kite properly and Chirrut took him to meditate in the painted caves. When Luke had gone back home, he’d seemed steadier on his feet.</p><p>“And your mother respects the Temple. She’s not going to drag you away,” Bodhi finishes.</p><p>Luke looks up from where he'd been resting his chin on his knee, eyes wide. "I thought you didn't approve of running away from your problems," he says, with just enough humor in his voice that Bodhi doesn't feel the need to flinch.</p><p>"I don't," he agrees. "I wouldn't help with that." He nudges Luke's ankle with his own "You'll still have to tell your mother. And Chirrut will probably make you do manual labor." Bodhi's never cared for that aspect of Temple service, but maybe because at heart Luke's a builder, or maybe because he can hear the kyber in a way Bodhi can't, he never seemed to mind. "But it would give you some time to think."</p><p>Luke smiles now, the lightness of it filtering up to his eyes and brow. "I'd like that," he says. "I'd like to see Jedha again."</p>
<hr/><p>"This landing is always so beautiful," Luke murmurs, his gaze fixed on the approaching Temple through the viewport. His hands are still in action, moving through the co-pilot's procedures, which Bodhi doesn't even really need done anyway.</p><p>So Bodhi just smiles, basks in the feeling of rightness that comes with returning home blooming in his chest. It's a sensation so enveloping he's sure Luke must feel it, even without effort.</p><p>"Nowhere in the galaxy like NiJedha," Bodhi says. People everywhere say the same thing about their own hometowns, of course, but Bodhi really does believe it's true about his. There are other holy cities, true, but none of them have Jedha’s Temple, or its poetry, or its alleys, always filled with the mingled scents of incense and blaster oil and street food.</p><p>“No,” Luke agrees. It’s at least partly Luke indulging Bodhi, but still, Bodhi knows Luke’s affection for Jedha is no polite pretence.</p><p>For some pilgrims, making it to the Holy City is a homecoming. Glancing over at Luke’s rapt expression, as the great spire of the Temple grows, Bodhi thinks he glimpses some echo of his own feelings — a quiet longing, now so close to being eased.</p>
<hr/><p>Luke bows low to let Amma press a hand to his head and bless him, the moment she comes out to the courtyard to greet them.</p><p>Amma smiles and pats Luke’s shoulder when he straightens up.</p><p>“It’s good that you have come back,” she says.</p><p>“I’m really glad to be here,” Luke says, looking around, breathing in deeply. “The house is so beautiful,” he tells Bodhi.</p><p>Bodhi smiles, rubs a hand along the courtyard wall. He hadn’t bought it yet, when Luke came last. At first, after the war, it was only a matter of finding a place where Amma would be more comfortable, somewhere with enough space but not so much they felt like strangers in a home not meant for them.</p><p>But then, one day, walking past this house out where the Garment Workers District met the Jeweler’s District sparked a memory. Climbing the walls with his cousins to pick fruit through the broken greenhouse roof, whispering speculations about who lived there, and eating their purloined heat-sweet mangos on a rooftop with his cousins, their fingers sticky with juice. A lifetime ago, after the Emperor, but so long before the Academy that it was his Abbu who found them later and frowned and clicked his tongue. He hadn’t yelled though, only looked at them each in turn and said, “We do not take what is not given.” Bodhi and his cousins had gone back, more than once, to look at the garden, but they’d never taken fruit again.</p><p>Bodhi tells Luke that story as they sit together on the stoop, sipping at the honey-wine Leia sent with Luke and watching the fireflies flicker in and out.</p><p>“I thought the flowers were the most beautiful thing on Jedha, when I was a kid,” Bodhi murmurs. “There were so many kinds, I can’t even remember. I thought it must be what a jungle looked like.”</p><p>“You should plant more flowers then,” Luke says. “And a mango tree.”</p><p>The greenhouse, now that it’s theirs, is filled mostly with Amma’s choices — root vegetables and herbs and chili peppers of every shade. All the little flourishes and ways to fill out a meal that she once had to bargain for in the market, now at her fingertips. Bodhi had added some flowers, too, strong, fragrant ones she could string for garlands.</p><p>But Luke’s right, it would be nice to have more. To plant fruit trees and delicate flowers purely for their extravagant beauty.</p><p>“Maybe those starflowers,” Bodhi says, because he knows it will make Luke smile and it does. Luke told him once that they grew in waves on the Aldera palace grounds. Bodhi’s warm from the press of Luke’s arm against his own and just tipsy enough to add, “You wore them in your hair, once. You and Leia.”</p><p>“For the Armistice, yeah,” Luke says, looking at Bodhi with some faint surprise. “Because they’re symbols of peace, back home.”</p><p>Bodhi hadn’t particularly wanted to go to Gatalenta for the signing, but to his surprise, Amma had. So Bodhi had loaded up his ship and taken Chirrut, Baze, and his mother to a warm, pleasant beachside town that seemed an unlikely location for the end of a war that had lasted most of Bodhi's life. He mostly remembers the day for how Jyn had smiled, tentative and almost child-like when she bowed hello to his mother, and how the blue of the starflowers in Luke's hair echoed the blue of his eyes.</p><p>“They’d be a good choice,” Luke says, bringing Bodhi back to the here and now. “Starflowers are pretty hardy, actually. Adaptable.”</p><p>“Maybe I’ll find some,” Bodhi says.</p><p>Luke sips at his mug of honey-wine and smiles out into evening dark.</p>
<hr/><p>Bodhi takes Luke along to some site visits and leaves him to talk to the construction crews, some days, but mostly he’s too busy to be much of a host. Luke doesn’t much seem to need it, either, content to spend hours walking the walls of the Temple with Chirrut, or carrying Amma’s bag through the markets for her, or fixing random things around the house that Bodhi vaguely intended to get to at some point. Jyn had, once, grudgingly said that Luke was surprisingly useful, for a royal, and it’s true.</p><p>Some days, Luke packs a bag and disappears off into the desert, to visit the ancient caves.</p><p>“You’ll get stuck out there, if there’s a sandstorm,” Bodhi says dubiously.</p><p>“Hey, don’t worry so much,” Luke says brightly, because for some reason, maybe exactly because he’d been raised in a palace, he seems to enjoy doing things like camping in ancient holy caves without any amenities. “I come from a desert planet, too. I can handle a sandstorm.”</p><p>“You haven’t lived on Tatooine since before you could <em>walk</em>,” Bodhi says incredulously.</p><p>“Owen and Beru still taught me,” Luke counters. “Besides, I just got off a six-month stint on Mirial during sandstorm season. I could put up barriers in my sleep, probably.”</p><p>“You could just wait until the winds have past,” Bodhi feels obliged to point out, because that’s exactly the public service messages his office has been putting out to pilots who’ve stubbornly scheduled their departures for the next few days.</p><p>“I need to hear the Force,” Luke says, turning back to his pack. He looks up, though, and gives Bodhi a tiny smile. “I really will be okay. I promise. I packed emergency supplies and some beacons.”</p><p>“Alright,” Bodhi concedes. He’d tell Luke that surely the whole point is that he can hear the Force anywhere, but Bodhi was raised enough of a believer that he knows some places are different. If Luke is looking for a message, then the ancient caves are as good a conduit as he’s likely to find. “Just keep your comm on, at least.”</p><p>“I will,” Luke promises. When he reaches out to hug Bodhi, he lingers, comfortable and solid in Bodhi’s arms, like he belongs there. “I’ll be home before you know it,” Luke says when he pulls away.</p><p><em>Home</em>. That lingers in Bodhi’s ears the whole day, below the howl of the wind.</p>
<hr/><p>Bodhi’s always liked heights. He’s a city boy, used to rooftop greenhouses and jostling for the best patch of sky during the Kite Festival. Now that he and Amma have a whole courtyard of their own, he likes to sit on the outer wall, where it faces towards the edge of the city, to watch the sunset.</p><p>It’s six weeks into Luke’s visit and a relatively quiet evening, the buzz of traffic humming. Luke’s joined him up on the wall as he does some days. They sit there, legs dangling, letting the sounds of the city wash over them.</p><p>"I wish I could just stay here," Luke finally says. "It feels <em>right</em>, being here."</p><p>Bodhi is warmed by Luke's confession. "The city could always use another engineer," he offers, only partly joking.</p><p>Luke smiles softly at him. Bodhi wants to lean in and kiss that smile. He lets himself dwell in that desire, in a way he usually doesn't.</p><p>For so long, his undeniable attraction to Luke was buried under layers of fear and duty and the need to become whole before he ever offered himself to someone he could never give half-measures. But Bodhi is thirty-three standard years old now, a municipal department head, a veteran. The ground beneath his feet finally feels solid. And something about Luke here, older now, and quieter, in Bodhi’s space simply because they’re comfortable this way, makes every feel possible.</p><p>"It's not just me, though," Luke continues, slowly picking his way through his words with care. "I think it would be a good place for the Jedi. The Force is so <em>clear </em>here."</p><p>"Well. We do get all types," Bodhi says, jostling Luke gently with his elbow. He could probably shove and Luke would keep his balance but his instincts still see danger in pressing too hard.</p><p>Luke laughs and the wind ruffles his hair. "Maybe it would have helped, if the Jedi had been just another sect," he says. "If we'd had company, like the Guardians. Ben used to say it was the great gift of the Jedi, that Force Sensitive people got to grow up and thrive in community. I think he wished he could give me and Leia that. But I feel like to start again, I need more voices. People the Jedi can turn to as siblings."</p><p>“There’s stories, about the Jedi being here once,” Bodhi says, even though Luke knows that, of course. It still feels like holding out something precious and breakable, because there's an answer he's suddenly looking for now. “A long, long time ago.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Luke agrees, slowly, thoughtfully. He licks his lips. “Do you think, maybe — do you think there could be again?”</p><p>Somewhere behind them, the bells of a shrine ring, deep and resounding. Bodhi looks at Luke in profile.</p><p>“Yeah,” Bodhi says finally, a strange hope blooming. What an idea to take root. But fitting, surely. The names Jedha and Jedi are branches off the same tree, after all. Maybe they have always belonged together. Maybe Luke really does belong here, not just tomorrow, or the next day, but always. Even if he went away, or if Bodhi did, they would still come back to this desert, this sunset, this city. “I think so.”</p><p>The future suddenly feels filled with a potential Bodhi had not let himself realize he longed for. The sense that maybe this time, when Luke stands too close, Bodhi could lean in, too, and close the gap. And it would be more than a stolen moment before their real lives reclaimed them, it would be a beginning of a new, shared chapter.</p><p>Luke turns his head, eyes flitting over Bodhi’s face, and then breaks into a grin.</p><p>Bodhi does lean in then and does kiss Luke, then. Because if Luke doesn’t just want to stay, if he actually could, there is surely no better moment.</p><p>Luke gasps and presses forward, kissing back desperately and gripping at the front of Bodhi’s shirt. But then he gasps, “Wait.”</p><p>They’ve done more than their share of waiting, Bodhi thinks, and he is reluctant to lose the soft warmth of Luke’s lips against his own. But Luke asked, so Bodhi strokes Luke’s cheek once and then pulls back just enough that they look each other in the eye.</p><p>“Nothing’s certain,” Luke says, still so close. “I don’t know if it’ll work and I can’t promise you anything, yet.”</p><p>“Luke,” Bodhi laughs, because it’s been nine years since he woke up to the sight of him. The first person he laid eyes on after coming back from the dead. “I know. But you’re here, and you might stay, and I want to kiss you again. Can we start there?”</p><p>“Yes,” Luke grins. Then he tugs Bodhi back to him.</p><p>They’re maybe a little too enthusiastic for where they’re perched, when they lean back into each other for long, deep kisses that leave them both gasping and close to overbalancing, but Luke throws out a hand and keeps them from slipping with the Force. Bodhi kisses him for that, too.</p>
<hr/><p>Bodhi’s biweekly meeting with the Mayor usually wraps up with some good-natured inquiries into the generalities of each other’s personal lives. Mayor Prameen asks after Bodhi’s mother, he asks how her daughters are doing in school.</p><p>Today, though, she tacks on, “And how’s your guest? Planning to stay a while longer I hope?”</p><p>Bodhi blinks. It’s not in any way a secret that Luke’s been in town and staying with him, but the Mayor’s studiedly causal tone paired with the glint of real curiosity in her eyes flusters Bodhi. He woke up this morning to Luke still in his bed, his hair rumpled and his sleep clothes puddled on the floor with Bodhi's, and that definitely <em>is</em> a secret. From his boss, at the very least, for the sake of decorum.</p><p>“He might, yeah,” Bodhi agrees cautiously. They have only just begun to discuss Luke’s slowly unfolding hopes for a Jedi training temple on Jedha with people beyond the closed circle of Chirrut and Baze and Bodhi’s mother. But they hadn’t planned on approaching the Mayor, yet. They haven’t truly built their case.</p><p>Prameen laughs, her montrails swaying slightly. “Guarded,” she says. “Fair enough, though you don’t need to be. It’s just that he’s been at a lot of the functions with you. And people are curious about royalty. And Jedi.”</p><p>“You’ve met him,” Bodhi points out. It’s more a stalling tactic than anything else.</p><p>“And he seems like a lovely young man,” Prameen agrees. Then her expression settles into something more serious. “The Prime Minister is wondering if, uh, if he’s planning to stay. It would be good to,” she pauses delicately, “let people know, if that’s the case or not. People like Commander Skywalker, in the city.” She looks expectantly at Bodhi.</p><p>He nods, because he doesn’t know what else to do, and he thinks it’s true. People in lots of places stare at Luke, but it’s true that in Jedha, they look at him with the deep affection afforded a long-awaited nephew finally come for a visit. Every grandmother and grandfather on the street seems to want to bless his head and there are always children darting around, hoping to show off their kite tricks or to see if Luke will levitate something for them.</p><p>Prameen takes Bodhi’s assent as her cue to continue, “They like the idea of the Jedi coming back, too.”</p><p>Bodhi coughs.</p><p>Prameen chuckles. “I didn’t win this office by being oblivious to what’s happening in my city, Rook,” she says. “Don’t look so concerned, I’m on your side. But there are people who would need assurances. That he’s serious.”</p><p>Bodhi swallows. “Luke’s talking to Chirrut, about what a Jedi training temple might work,” he offers, because he thinks that Luke won’t mind him sharing that. "And Baze, too," he adds, because Baze is the one people rallied behind, to liberate the city and then the moon.</p><p>“That’s a good start,” the Mayor says, sitting back and nodding. “But we’ll need more. A symbol. A show of commitment that he won’t disappear back off to Alderaan after we’ve changed our city for him.” She must take in Bodhi’s consternation because she shrugs, waves her stylus in a little circle and adds, “I don’t know what would look like yet, either. Well," she tips her chin sideways, "a wedding to someone here <em>would</em> be convenient."</p><p>Bodhi rubs at his temple, feeling a headache wanting to rise. Why, he wonders, is marriage on the minds of everyone he talks to these days?</p><p>Mayor Prameen, though, thankfully shakes her head slightly like she's shooing away an extraneous thought and finishes, "Anyway. I'm just suggesting it might be time to read me in on this.”</p><p>Bodhi clears his throat and fights down the urge to fidget. “We’ve been planning to, definitely. Just waiting for the right time,” he trails off.</p><p>“And now I’ve presented it to you. How lovely, when things work out like that,” Prameen smiles. “Have Commander Skywalker schedule a meeting with me, will you? The Mayor’s Office really should run him through the processes involved. Get some details on his plans.” And she looks out the window for a second and then adds absently, “And we’ll need to connect with the palace in Aldera at some point, no?”</p><p>“Um,” Bodhi murmurs, still quite bowled over. “Yes.”</p><p>Prameen taps a finger against her cheek. “You know, someday you might be the one sitting in this seat. No, it’s true. I’ve thought it before. But even if that never happens, I suspect you’ll change Jedha quite a bit.”</p><p>“For the better, I hope,” Bodhi says firmly, because for as much as he wants Luke to make a home on Jedha for himself, he wants the Jedi to make a home here for the whole moon and for all of the faithful.</p><p>“Yes,” the Mayor says thoughtfully. “So do I.”</p>
<hr/><p>Somehow, from there, things are set into motion. Luke’s training temple turns from a whisper from the Force to their delicate shared dream to a matter discussed in the City Council chambers.</p><p>Bodhi now sees Luke sometimes, unexpectedly, in the hallways of the Municipal Building, walking alongside department chiefs or the Mayor’s aides. He pulls long-suffering expressions for Bodhi’s private amusement and Bodhi makes up for shaking his head at him later, by laying kisses down the line of Luke’s throat until Luke whines and twists his fingers in Bodhi’s hair.</p><p>Even so, Bodhi rarely sees Luke in his office. The Mayor had rolled her wrist and said something about not wanting to give any impressions of impropriety because of personal relations, and Bodhi, despite all his years serenely lying for Rebel Intelligence, had gone bright red. His deputy has been handling whatever bits and pieces of the proposal (conceived by Luke but polished into something politically presentable by Leia, Bodhi, and Winter, along with a wide assortment of Alderaani and Jedhan aides) touched on city space transportation.</p><p>Today, though, Bodhi comes back into his office after a teeth-grinding meeting with the architectural firm in charge of the new spaceport on the outskirts of the New City, to find Luke sitting with his socked feet curled up on the couch in his office.</p><p>“Hi,” Bodhi says, feeling his shoulders soften at the sight of Luke.</p><p>Luke grins at him and holds up a bag. “Lunch?”</p><p>They sit cross-legged on Bodhi’s office balcony, which is more a ledge with view, and eat with their hands, Luke recounting Han and Chewie’s latest misadventure and imitating Leia’s expressions as she’d told Luke about it, Bodhi laughing and sharing something Kay had said about Jyn and Cassian’s idiosyncratic ‘human courting rituals’ in his most recent letter.</p><p>At the end of the meal, Luke pulls out two fragrant mangoes triumphantly. Bodhi pictures him stopping at a fruit stall and holding them up to his nose, looking for the ripest ones. Just because he knows Bodhi loves them. Being in love, Bodhi thinks, can be made up of such small things.</p><p>“You remember how to eat these the right way?” Bodhi teases.</p><p>They both end up sticky-fingered and messy and it is entirely worth it. Bodhi leans forward and kisses Luke in thanks, savoring the sweetness that lingers on his lips.</p>
<hr/><p>Normally, Bodhi can handle waiting. So much of being a cargo pilot was just that, after all, and then in the Rebellion, he’d been the one sitting in the shuttle cockpit, listening for the signal. That learned patience has gotten Bodhi through a lot.</p><p>But right now, waiting for Luke to get out of this holocall meeting between the Mayor’s office and the Prime Minister’s office and the Aldera palace. Mayor Prameen’s aide had politely asked if Bodhi wanted to take part, but it had felt strange. It’s a formality, mostly, since Luke’s already spent hours talking to Leia, to his parents, to half the Jedhan Parliament and probably every NiJedha city council person. But it’s still important, symbolic.</p><p>Finally, finally, Luke comes back. Bodhi follows him upstairs, into his bedroom, which they only nominally don’t share.</p><p>Luke rubs at his eyes and sits down heavily on the edge of Bodhi’s bed, letting out a heavy breath. Bodhi has been alternating between pacing, attempting to read through reports, and sending Jyn and Cassian anxious messages that Jyn is clearly choosing to ignore and to which Cassian merely replied, “Jedha’s future shouldn’t depend on royalty.” Which might be true, but of course hadn’t been helpful.</p><p>“So?” Bodhi finally prompts, sitting by Luke’s side.</p><p>“It went well,” Luke breathes out, dropping his head onto Bodhi’s shoulder. “Papá even said he thought,” Luke’s voice goes hoarse, “that Ben would have approved.”</p><p>Bodhi wraps an arm around Luke and squeezes, offering comfort even as a buzzy relief floods his own veins. There’s a long fight ahead of them still, but their course is set, and this is the part Bodhi’s best at: getting people where they need to be.</p><p>He imagines Jedha, in the years to come, rebuilding back to what it has always been in its heart: a sanctuary for all those who serve the Force, in all its myriad attributes. He squeezes Luke’s hand.</p><p>“It’s going to be beautiful,” he promises, brushing a lock of hair back behind Luke’s ear.</p><p>Luke lifts his head and smiles. His eyes are luminous. “It is,” he says, the conviction as clear as the kyber in the Temple’s inner sanctum.</p><p>Bodhi leans to seal the promise with a kiss. He wants to press his face to where Luke’s jaw and throat meet. But Luke presses gently at his shoulder, holding him back. His glowing expression has faded into apprehension.</p><p>“What is it?” Bodhi asks.</p><p>Luke closes his eyes for a moment and his shoulders roll back, so he’s sitting unnaturally upright. “There’s, um. There’s more. My parents still think it would be a good idea for me to get married,” Luke says, still except for a single finger tapping against his thigh. “On Jedha, now. Apparently the Prime Minister of Jedha agrees. Xe suggested an engagement announcement before the Land Usage Committee vote might sway some of the traditionalists.”</p><p>“Oh,” Bodhi says. "That's in three weeks."</p><p>"Yes," Luke says softly.</p><p>Bodhi blinks, dizzy from the abrupt deadline that has been tossed into his lap. “That’s a really short time to get a courting gift.”</p><p>There have certainly been faster courtships he’s known, but he’s not prepared — he hasn’t so much as hinted to his mother that they should go pick out a gift box from the carvers, because he hadn’t known he should. And there are flowers, he’s heard, on Alderaan, a list of deeds on Tatooine. He should have asked Leia more questions, he thinks.</p><p>“Bodhi,” Luke says, slowly. “You don’t have to do anything. That isn’t why I told you. I just wanted to warn you. In case, I don’t know,” he runs a hand through his hair, “my mother does something drastic like calling you directly.”</p><p>Bodhi stares, trying to make the words comprehendible. “Well. You’re not going to marry someone else,” he points out, more lost than anything else. He knows Luke, loves Luke, and though Luke can be thoughtless, he is never cruel.</p><p>“No,” Luke says, clutching at Bodhi’s hands. “No, of course not.”</p><p>“So, then, what are you going to do?” Bodhi asks, tangling their fingers together. "You can't just blow off the Prime Minister. Not after all the work you've done, that we've all done."</p><p>Luke’s mouth sets into that stubborn line Bodhi’s all too familiar with. “I’ll figure it out,” he says.</p><p>“That’s not a plan,” Bodhi counters. And then, because it’s true, and because he loves Luke, he adds, “You know, you're not the only one people bring up marriage to. Marriage is an alliance here, too.”</p><p>That’s why the Prime Minister would dare to suggest the prince of Alderaan marry into Jedha, why Prameen’s been proding Bodhi about Luke in their meetings. There are no Great Houses on Jedha, no dynasties to maintain. But marriage is, Bodhi has always been taught, a weaving together of families and homes to make a community.</p><p>And yeah, maybe in their case, it’s risky and premature, when all there is between them is a couple short months of stolen kisses. But all the other years, all the shared meals and the close scrapes and the evenings spent watching the horizon, well before their friendship became a romance — all that matters too. All of it is a foundation.</p><p>“I’m not saying no. I’d never say no, if it were you asking. But for us, I wanted it to be something we chose,” Luke says, the worry line between his eyebrows etched deep like a canyon.</p><p>Bodhi tips forward so he can press his forehead to Luke’s. “This is your home,” he says. “Here, with me. If getting engaged is what makes other people realize, then let’s do it. Maybe it’s not what either of us imagined, but that doesn't mean it’ll be any less real.”</p><p>Luke makes a choked sound and then his hands are cupping Bodhi’s face. “I love you,” he says. It’s not the first time he’s said it, but his tone is so utterly sincere that it clutches at Bodhi's heart.</p><p>Luke closes the tiny distance between them with a slow, lingering kiss that Bodhi presses into as well.</p><p>"If we're doing this," Luke says, still almost against Bodhi's lips, "let me be the one to give you a courting gift?"</p><p>Bodhi huffs a faint laugh, because of course Luke wants to do that. Probably to leave a good impression on Amma, as if he hasn't been doing that for years.</p><p>"Okay," Bodhi agrees, his fingers at Luke's waist, curling with an almost unbearable tenderness. "If I can do the proposal, after. It's flowers, right?"</p><p>"A wreath, yeah," Luke says, pulling back just slightly from their pressed-close conference, his thumbs stroking at Bodhi's temples. "To hang on my door. Three colors," he continues softly, like he's recounting a story from childhood. "Red for love, and yellow for joy, and blue for peace and our long life together."</p><p>"We'll have all of that," Bodhi promises and falls back willingly when Luke clambers into his lap and tips them down onto the bed.</p>
<hr/><p>After dinner, when it's just the two of them getting up from evening prayers, Bodhi tells his Amma, “I’m going to ask Luke to marry me.” He says it all in a rush, before his courage runs out, because he’s putting her on the spot now that he’s already committed. But he does want her blessing, before he and Luke do this.</p><p>“Oh,” Amma says, blinking. “I see.”</p><p>“We just talked about it today, that's why I never said before. His family wants him to get married, and it would help with our plans,” Bodhi continues, because her subdued response is making him itch. She loves Luke. This news should be making her beam. “And you’ve been saying I should get married.”</p><p>“Yes,” Amma says, but tentatively. “I want that for you very much. And Luke will be a good husband to you, I'm sure. But I thought you would get married because you wanted to. Not for,” she nods out the window, “the city, or the Jedi. We’re ordinary people, beta,” she says, clasping Bodhi’s hand. “This should be a decision about family.”</p><p>“But, Amma, he <em>is </em>my family. Our family,” Bodhi replies. That’s why, more than anything else. More than the politics, more than the logic of it. “I want him to be happy. I love him.”</p><p>Amma does smile now, with sincere warmth in her eyes. She squeezes Bodhi’s upper arms. "And you'll be happy, too?" she prompts.</p><p>"I will," Bodhi promises. Coming home to a free Jedha, with a clear conscience and a clear purpose, able to look his mother in the eyes again, had been the greatest victory of Bodhi’s life. Even without Luke, he’s been happy these last few years. But with Luke here, it’s that much more, and Bodhi wants that for the rest of his life: to be able to kiss the taste of mango from Luke’s mouth and to fall asleep and wake up to the sound of his slow, even breaths.</p><p>“He’s a good boy,” Amma replies. “He makes you laugh.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Bodhi agrees faintly, looking at his feet, scrunching his toes into the warm carpet.</p><p>“It’s a good thing to marry a friend,” Amma says.</p><p>Bodhi nods, thinking, as he sure Amma is too, of Abbu and how he would always play Amma's favorite qawwals on winter evenings, and bends to receive Amma’s blessing.</p>
<hr/><p>Amma and Luke must talk, because she announces that they’ll be having a dinner next week, with his aunts and cousins and their spouses. Chirrut and Baze will be coming, too.</p><p>Bodhi looks at Luke across the table, still and smiling slightly, at ease under scrutiny in a way he never was at nineteen.</p><p>“Should I call Jyn and Cassian and Kay?” Bodhi asks.</p><p>Luke’s eyes flit to Amma’s face for a moment and then he nods. “At the end,” he confirms, the way his fingers twitch the only betrayal of his nerves. “Maybe I’ll call Leia, too?”</p><p>Amma smiles and pats his hand. “And your parents, and your aunt and uncle,” she adds. “You must, of course.”</p><p>Bodhi wishes he were better with words, so he could find ones adequate to encompass what it means, to know these two people he loves, who are so vital to him, love each other, too. In the absence of that, he only says, “Okay. Sounds like a plan.”</p><p>A few days before the dinner, Luke gets a package, some kind of bio-storage container.</p><p>When he catches Bodhi eyeing it, he twines his arms around Bodhi’s neck and says, “Nope, no peeking. You have to pretend it’s not even there.”</p><p>“Not even a hint?” Bodhi asks, though really he’s content enough to wait.</p><p>Luke shakes his head, a lock of hair falling into his face. He’s let it grow out, since coming to Jedha, so it’s long enough to kiss his shoulders again, like when Bodhi first saw him, though a shade or two darker now. He pulls it up to keep it out of his face, or works braids into it while Bodhi watches from bed. It suits him.</p><p>“No hints,” Luke grins. “But,” he says, his clever, capable fingers working their way under the collar of Bodhi’s shirt, “I’d be willing to distract you.”</p>
<hr/><p>Honey and nuts are still sweet on Bodhi’s tongue when Luke scrapes back his chair. Amma shoos them all into the living room and Bodhi’s cousins Amira and Zayd pull out holo emitters and start squabbling about where to position them.</p><p>“His mum’s a queen,” Amira says. “Get the angle right!”</p><p>“Ami, it’s fine there,” Zayd retorts, rolling his eyes like he’s thirteen instead of thirty and married, a teacher whose students hang on his every word.</p><p>Zayd is the youngest of the three of them, the one who was always asking Amira and Bodhi to wait up, when they were children. Bodhi feels a sudden well of intense affection toward him. This, he thinks, must be why the asking is always done in public — for the protection, yes, and so the family can assess, but also for the memory of having everyone around you when the person asking is the one who’s been awaited.</p><p>Amira’s wife, Lita, touches Amira’s hair gently and Amira relents, “Okay. Okay.”</p><p>Soon, the room is filled with wavering holo-images, bringing their loved ones from across the galaxy. Breha Organa speaks with Chirrut and Baze about the repairs to the Temple’s living quarters, and Zayd and Kay talk about some mathematician from Chandrila whose work they’re interested in.</p><p>When Luke comes back, he’s holding a wooden box, covered in a deep red cloth rich with embroidery. It’s larger than would be typical, but the dark wood is right and fragrant.</p><p>Luke sits down by Bodhi, the box resting on the low coffee table beside them, and says the traditional words, clear and firm and hopeful. “I admire and esteem you. I hope to grow together with you, and to honor your family as my own, if you wish to do the same. Please accept this gift, freely given.”</p><p>And Bodhi gives them back. “I am honored to receive your gift,” he says, and it’s the truth as well as tradition.</p><p>Then Bodhi lifts Luke’s hand, presses a kiss to his knuckles quickly. He’s not supposed to show his hand like that, but Luke’s smile is more than worth it.</p><p>“Oh, how lovely,” Luke’s Aunt Beru murmurs.</p><p>With the reason for their gathering past, everyone starts to take their leave. Bodhi and his cousins and Luke go around gathering the holo emitters and the plates, while Amma sips tea with Baze and Chirrut.</p><p>When everyone but Chirrut and Baze have left in a flurry of cheek kisses and good wishes, Bodhi comes back into the living room with Luke, sits down by Amma’s side while Luke hovers over by a bookshelf.</p><p>“So,” Amma says, raising her eyebrows. “Shall we go look?” She nudges Bodhi in the side, playful.</p><p>This part, the privacy, the quiet moment when he can consult his family and give them his decision, is perhaps more for show with him and Luke than for most. But now that it’s here, he realizes he’s grateful Luke has done all this. It feels right and Bodhi promises himself that he’ll do the same.</p><p>“We’ll be back soon,” Bodhi promises.</p><p>Luke laughs a little, more nervous breath than anything else. Bodhi wants to kiss him again, properly, but there will be time for that soon.</p><p>Bodhi and his mother retreat to her neat little domain above the living room — a bedroom and a workspace for when she wants to bring her tailoring commissions home, a kitchenette so she can brew chai at her convenience. Baze and Chirrut join them, because the wisdom of honored uncles who are also honored Guardians is always welcome at a moment like this.</p><p>Amma sits them all down on a divan and prompts Bodhi, “Open it.”</p><p>Bodhi carefully unties the cloth, smoothing a hand over the embroidery. He would recognize his mother’s work anymore. “Amma, you did this?” he asks, feeling very much the child she would hug and listen to as he pointed out planets in the night sky.</p><p>“Your Priya Aunty and I, yes,” she agrees. “Who else would I trust to do this?”</p><p>“Thank you,” he says, though it’s inadequate.</p><p>“Come,” she prompts, squeezing his hand. “Open it.”</p><p>So Bodhi does, carefully lifting the lid off the box. The sweet smell of dirt and mango floats up. Bodhi laughs and carefully lifts the sapling out of the box and into his lap.</p><p>“Well,” Chirrut prompts. “What is it?”</p><p>Bodhi rubs a leaf between his fingers, smiling uncontrollably. “It’s a mango tree sapling. For our greenhouse.”</p><p>“A good choice,” Amma says, very softly. “He knows you.”</p><p>“A growing thing is an auspicious gift,” Baze rumbles.</p><p>“Fruit means he believes your life together will be sweet,” Chirrut agrees.</p><p>Amma strokes his hair, smiling, and Bodhi swipes at his eyes to dispel the unexpected tears.</p><p>“Amma,” he says, “will you go tell him I accept his suit?”</p><p>She stands and cups his face in her hands, drops a kiss on his forehead. “Of course,” she says.</p><p>Bodhi hugs the sapling to his body and waits for Luke. They’ll plant the sapling in the greenhouse together, Bodhi thinks.</p><p>“It’ll still be a few years before it bears fruit,” Luke tells him, later, between kisses when they’re curled up in bed.</p><p>“We have time,” Bodhi replies.</p><p>Luke beams and kisses him again, hard. Bodhi parts his lips and drinks Luke in.</p>
<hr/><p>A courting period can be as long or as short as the lovers involved need to be ready for marriage. Bodhi, though, needs to formalize things a bit more, and on short notice. The Land Usage committee vote is in less than two weeks.</p><p>Fortunately, the greenhouse nursery run by Aditya Uncle has starflowers in bloom, and when Bodhi describes what he wants, Stasia, who Aditya assured Bodhi was his best flower artist, grins and says, “Oh, yeah, I know how to do those.”</p><p>Bodhi blinks in surprise. Flower arrangements other than garlands aren’t much of a thing on a desert moon like Jedha. He can’t imagine Stasia gets a lot of requests for Alderaanian proposal wreaths.</p><p>“The holonet, man,” Stasia laughs. “I like learning new things.”</p><p>“Oh,” Bodhi says. “Well. Lucky for me.”</p><p>“It is!” Stasia agrees. “And this is gonna look great on my resume. Proposal wreath for a prince!” She comes out from behind the counter and gestures for Bodhi to follow her down the rows of plants. “So you want starflowers for the blue. What do you want for the yellow and red? Alderaanian roses are the traditional love symbol, of course,” she says and gestures to a bush overladen with not-quite-bloomed but already lovely deep red flowers. “And if you want to incorporate some native Jedhan flowers, I’d suggest using the suncups for joy.” She points to a patch of small, ground-hugging golden flowers that Bodhi’s grown up seeing pushing their way up through the packed soil at the edge of city alleys, after the monsoon.</p><p>“Yeah,” Bodhi says, immediately. “Both of those.”</p><p>When he comes back to pick up the wreath, he knows without a doubt that they were the right choice.</p><p>“Oh,” he says, breathing in sharply, seeing the colors woven together. “It’s incredible.”</p><p>Stasia hums, admiring her handiwork as well. “Alderaan knows a thing or two about beauty,” she says.</p><p>Bodhi agrees, wholeheartedly.</p><p>He travels home oh-so-carefully, too aware of his delicate cargo.</p><p>Before dusk, Bodhi showers and puts on a fresh kurta, the collar and cuffs brightened with gold thread. Pulls his hair back into a braid that Luke’s admired before.</p><p>Bodhi asks Luke when they’re sitting on the stoop in the courtyard, at sunset, holding the wreath in his lap. He asks the way Leia taught him. “Will you marry me and build a home with me?”</p><p>“Yes!” Luke says, almost before Bodhi’s finished.</p><p>Bodhi laughs against his lips and kisses him and kisses him and kisses him. Then Luke pulls away and grabs his hand, pulling him up the stairs. Then, delicately, with his eyes sparkling, Luke hangs the wreath on the door.</p><p>“So everyone will know this is a house visited by joy,” Luke says.</p>
<hr/><p>Three months later, the proposal for a Jedi training temple, to be housed by the painted caves outside NiJedha comes to a final vote in the Jedhan Parliament.</p><p>Bodhi lets Luke squeeze his hand too hard as they wait for the final vote tally. The number tick up and energy thrums through Bodhi’s vein. They are so close.</p><p>Finally, finally the Deputy Prime Minister steps up to her podium, clears her throat and announces, “The resolution passes.” She grins and brings down her gavel. “And I declare today’s session closed.”</p><p>Bodhi jumps to his feet and whoops, his voice and Luke’s startled laugh buried beneath the cheers of the crowd. Heedless of all the eyes and all the cameras, Bodhi sweeps Luke into his arms and kisses him.</p><p>“It’s really happening,” Luke whispers, his arms tight around Bodhi’s shoulders.</p><p>“Yeah,” Bodhi promises into Luke’s ear. “You’re home.”</p><p>“With you,” Luke agrees.</p>
<hr/><p>Eventually, after the crowd begins to disperse, and the journalists have been sated, they make their way back to the house and slough off their formal clothes, fall asleep curled up around each other.</p><p>In the morning, Bodhi wakes to Luke pressing kisses to his cheek, his nose, his forehead, his chin. Bodhi shifts, and Luke pulls away, his smiling face hovering above Bodhi’s.</p><p>“Mm,” Bodhi rubs at his eyes. “G’morning,” he says, gingerly pushing himself up with his elbows when Luke sits back.</p><p>“It is a good morning,” Luke agrees. He’s still smiling, the corners of his eyes scrunched up slightly. “And I’m happy I’m marrying you.”</p><p>Bodhi’s chest feels warm. “I’m glad I’m marrying you, too,” he says.</p>
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